Initially released in 1992, Juan Atkins joined forces with Moritz von Oswald and Thomas Fehlmann, for the second iteration of latter duo’s 3 Men in Berlin project, producing a monumental collaboration between Berlin and Detroit that profoundly affected the path forward for techno music.
The impact this album holds is evident in how it elevates beyond a singular or separable representation of its origins. Instead, it resonates through a collaborative nature that reflects its inherent melting pot. Where hints of each member’s sound - Atkins’ mangled and bouncing funk, von Oswald’s purist echoes and foundation rumblings, and Fehlmann’s ambient meshes - may be heard coalescing in a slipstream, and at other times tussling in fervent unfoldings. It may be almost 30 years old, but it remains deeply innovative at its core - folding and warping, unrelenting from its vision.
Densely packed is a propulsive drive of discordant bubbling and jazz-induced textures. Featuring much-beloved tracks such as Jazz Is The Teacher and Die Kosmischen Kuriere, Atkins, von Oswald and Fehlmann forming an emission bound together as a mould of metropolis navigation. Be it amid destructed realities harbouring the bleakest of nights, or long-lensed sci-fi visions, joining dots between the position of the feet and the head. The flanging pads and chirruping percussion of Jazz Is The Teacher lead in a moment in dance music that is as legendary as iconic, shifting into terrains far-out, receiving astral missives then rendering them to groove. Laid back, soulful and affective, it equals ultra-funky, interstellar techno that, once heard, leaves us never quite the same.
The impact this album holds is evident in how it elevates beyond a singular or separable representation of its origins. Instead, it resonates through a collaborative nature that reflects its inherent melting pot. Where hints of each member’s sound - Atkins’ mangled and bouncing funk, von Oswald’s purist echoes and foundation rumblings, and Fehlmann’s ambient meshes - may be heard coalescing in a slipstream, and at other times tussling in fervent unfoldings. It may be almost 30 years old, but it remains deeply innovative at its core - folding and warping, unrelenting from its vision.
Densely packed is a propulsive drive of discordant bubbling and jazz-induced textures. Featuring much-beloved tracks such as Jazz Is The Teacher and Die Kosmischen Kuriere, Atkins, von Oswald and Fehlmann forming an emission bound together as a mould of metropolis navigation. Be it amid destructed realities harbouring the bleakest of nights, or long-lensed sci-fi visions, joining dots between the position of the feet and the head. The flanging pads and chirruping percussion of Jazz Is The Teacher lead in a moment in dance music that is as legendary as iconic, shifting into terrains far-out, receiving astral missives then rendering them to groove. Laid back, soulful and affective, it equals ultra-funky, interstellar techno that, once heard, leaves us never quite the same.
